African Jungle Animal projects

28 April 2014

Hello Friends!I know I write this almost every time that I post, but it just seems like time flies and before I know it, two weeks have gone by since I wrote here! Yikes!I thought I would share the finished products from our African unit. We actually finished this unit before Easter, but as I said, I am just now getting around to sharing!Here are a few of our paper mache animals. Now before you say "No way, a kindergartner could not make that!", you are partially right. I create the shapes from newspaper and masking tape.

Then, parent helpers come into the classroom to help my kiddos cover the shapes with white paper towel and paste. After the animal is completely covered with paper towel, the kids use non-bleeding tissue paper to "color" the animals. I LOVE doing it this way because the mess is all done in one step. No waiting for the shape to dry and then painting it. And there is some pretty cool commercial jungle animal tissue paper that makes coloring some of the animals a snap!

Here are some of the finished animals.......

The kids also illustrated a book about Africa and I LOVE the way they can make a simple picture beautiful!

We also touch a bit on African people. I think it is important for kids to know that PEOPLE live in Africa, too. This is a great time to touch upon how people are alike and different.

When talking about the people of Africa, we discuss storytelling and how masks play an important role in African stories. Here is a fun You Tube link for the African tale "A Story, A Story."

The masks that we make are EASY! Just paint a strong paper plate brown or any color that you wish. Let them dry. Then put out beads, paint, construction paper, glue, jewels......... whatever sounds fun and let your kiddos go! When the mask is dry, attach a colorful paper collar to the mask with hot glue or staples. I punched a hole in the top and hung the masks from the ceiling in front of our African animal display.

I just LOVE teaching this unit and am always so sad when it is over. I also wish I had more time with this unit because there is SO MUCH more that I would like to do. We did a giraffe mixed media painting. I wish I would have taken more pictures of them. This is the only one that I have....